Mahindra XUV500 niggles & solutions

This is a discussion on Mahindra XUV500 niggles & solutions within Technical Stuff, part of the Under the Hood category; Originally Posted by anandtheleo
But, after the change I can see a difference in the intensity of the headlight compared ...

But, after the change I can see a difference in the intensity of the headlight compared to the one on the right (the old one). The intensity is lesser by about 30%-40% and shows even in daylight, when asked about it the service adviser tells that Mahindra have changed the wiring and light bulb design as there was frequent problems in the old ones.

Does the headlight assembly include bulbs? In all my earlier cars, whenever I had to change the headlight assembly, it never included bulbs -- the old bulbs were carried forward to the new assembly or new bulbs were required to be purchased separately.

Did you not have the option of fitting your old bulbs in the new assembly?

Does the headlight assembly include bulbs? In all my earlier cars, whenever I had to change the headlight assembly, it never included bulbs -- the old bulbs were carried forward to the new assembly or new bulbs were required to be purchased separately.

Did you not have the option of fitting your old bulbs in the new assembly?

Yes, the new assembly included bulbs, I asked for putting in my old bulbs, but they were not keen on it. They had 2 problems with it, first they told since this was a warranty claim they had to send the entire set as is back to Mahindra for assessment. Second, they had already fixed the entire assembly and removing and fitting the bulbs in the XUV is not so easy. Was asked to try it out for a few days and get back to them if its too feeble.

Had a keen look at the high beam during lunch time, there is a difference in the high beam bulb compared to the old on the right, very subtle difference. Low beam could not make out, since its a projector lamp.

I think its better to let the driver know which door is open "before" the car starts moving??? Why wait for the car to move??

I think it's reasonable what they've done. If the door is open: as in someone getting out, or not closed properly by mistake, the red icon on the steering console lights up. THAT is your indicator to tell you that the door is open.
If you still drive on without shutting the door, [and I'm guessing the car tries to central lock, but can't because one door is open], then it'll show you a bigger warning on the central display with details as to which is open.
pretty logical if you ask me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDP

Yes. Remember the alert icon at the bottom of the touch-screen? You get a alert which mentions which door is open.

Once you get moving, the GPS locates the vehicle. Using the GPS satellite, the car establishes a contact with a supercomputer hosted somewhere in Antartica. The supercomupter does the number crunching of the zillions of data points received from your car and uses a super-complex algorithm to figure out which door is open and then sends back the message to the car via the GPS satellite. That's why it takes a couple of minutes for the car to give that alert!

I think it's reasonable what they've done. If the door is open: as in someone getting out, or not closed properly by mistake, the red icon on the steering console lights up. THAT is your indicator to tell you that the door is open.
If you still drive on without shutting the door, [and I'm guessing the car tries to central lock, but can't because one door is open], then it'll show you a bigger warning on the central display with details as to which is open.
pretty logical if you ask me.

I am sorry, I really dont understand how is that logical.

The idea behind giving the driver information about which specific door is open, is to enable him/her to go directly to that door and close it.

If you are telling the driver that a door is open, you might as well tell him which one it is. If the driver doesnt know which one is open, he/she is forced to check one by one to find which one it is.

If you have a system which can tell you which specific door is open, why do you want to withhold that information and give it only when the car is moving.

Let me say it practically. A few people got out of the car, and luggage was taken out of the boot. Now you get in, so as to drive away. When you start the car, a door open warning is shown, but doesnt specify which one. What do you do??

Do you expect the driver to move the car 15-20meters so as to find out which door it is??

I just started facing a new problem - this time with the Fuel indicator.

After fueling to full tank - the fuel indicator on the main console ( the twin pods) - shows only 9/10 bars. The first time this happend ( I had fueled at Shell), I thought this might have been the bunk attender pulling out early , but after doing it thrice and 3 different bunk I am pretty sure some thing is wrong with the indicator.

I took it up with the service center while servicing and they said they cycled the fuel float system ( ie. pulled the connectors from battery and put it back again to remove any hysteresis issues I guess ) - but now I get only 8 bars when I tank up !

Its not just the Instrument Pod that indicates lower fuel , the range indicator on the main display also shows reduced tank range. It used to show a 767Km after tanking up - but now shows about 560-600 only.

The really strange thing is after driving a 40-50 Kms, the range starts gradually going up ( In the most recent fill - it showed 560 on the Distance-to-Empty, but after driving about 70Kms, shows around 630 as DTE )

Any one else faced the same problem and have a solution / suggestion ?

Do you expect the driver to move the car 15-20meters so as to find out which door it is??

I can't agree more. The instrument cluster must display which door is open. But there's a catch in the current design. The display is just too small to see from the normal driving position, as to which door is open. Perhaps it's useful for someone who is not near sighted like me. Mahindra are you listening ?

Second, they had already fixed the entire assembly and removing and fitting the bulbs in the XUV is not so easy.

One should really experience this piece once to understand what kind of a moronic design M&M has for its headlight assembly! I have a first hand experience of the struggle. One evening recently while heading for the airport I realized that the left projector bulb has gone kaput. I completed the run with the High beam on.

I had the 2 spare bulbs provided by M&M in the glovebox and decided will change the bulb as soon as I reach home. I did not know what ordeal awaited me. All my life I have changed my bulbs on my own. You don't need a A.S.S. for that. Anyhow, if on a dark highway your bulb goes phutt you will have to do that on your own. Well, M&M thinks otherwise. That evening I struggled for 4 hours. In the process I had to open up the cover of the fuse box (I think... since in the dark of the cellar parking I could not make out for sure what that box was) behind the headlight assembly as the hands won't otherwise reach the bulb. Also, the holder of the bulb has a wire on ration. You can not properly get the bulb out as the wire is very very short and can't turn, bend etc!

After 4 hours and endless struggle in the dark I had a bulb fitted in the projector and had it finally inside the projector cavity as well. But I also had a perfectly new bulb lying somewhere deep inside the headlight assembly along with a spoon, with which I was trying to fish out the bulb that had slipped in. I also had the retainer clip in my hand, besides a bruised hand, that I just could not fix into that super narrow cavity no matter how hard I tried. twice I almost lost the clip inside the same unreachable cavity but caught it in time before it could slip inside! I finally had to land up at the A.S.S. next morning to get things back in line.

M&M seriously need to do a rethink if they believe their customers should depend on the A.S.S. for even a bulb change (as my RM said).

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaiserketkar

I think it's reasonable what they've done. If the door is open: as in someone getting out, or not closed properly by mistake, the red icon on the steering console lights up. THAT is your indicator to tell you that the door is open.
If you still drive on without shutting the door, [and I'm guessing the car tries to central lock, but can't because one door is open], then it'll show you a bigger warning on the central display with details as to which is open.
pretty logical if you ask me.

I second you. I was going to say that I think this is a perfectly understandable design. The alert comes up with a ding sound and shows up big on the screen. Till you have not started moving but the engine is running the car can not possibly keep doing a "ding" every time you open a door! Its only after you start moving does that alert comes up.

I can't agree more. The instrument cluster must display which door is open. But there's a catch in the current design. The display is just too small to see from the normal driving position, as to which door is open. Perhaps it's useful for someone who is not near sighted like me. Mahindra are you listening ?

I think it was mentioned that the specific door open warning is shown on the main infotainment display screen, and not on the instrument cluster.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zappo

I second you. I was going to say that I think this is a perfectly understandable design. The alert comes up with a ding sound and shows up big on the screen. Till you have not started moving but the engine is running the car can not possibly keep doing a "ding" every time you open a door! Its only after you start moving does that alert comes up.

Why do you need a "ding" every time?? Mahindra is one of those companies which is obsessed with these "ding"s. May be they think the more the dings, the more sophisticated the car is.

Let me tell you how a proper logical system should be, as is provided by FIAT.

Once the key is moved to the on position, door open warnings start showing on both the instrument cluster and on the MID. The MID mentions which particular door it is, while the instrument cluster shows a generic one. The engine need not be started for this. Also please note there is no "ding" or any other sound at all. The MID warning will go away after about 20 seconds, but the one on the instrument cluster will stay on.

If you do start moving, without closing the doors, then a continuous audible warning sounds, along with the MID and instrument cluster warnings, to alert you fully regarding a door being open. If the warning on the MID had disappeared when you started moving, it will re-appear so as to tell you which door is open.

If you choose to continue on anyway, the continous beep changes into an intermittent one, and eventually goes off all together. This happens so that in case of an issue with the sensors or your door doesnt close you dont have to drive around with a continous beep.

Why do you need a "ding" every time?? Mahindra is one of those companies which is obsessed with these "ding"s. May be they think the more the dings, the more sophisticated the car is.

That ding is to attract your attention. Also, do remember, ding or no ding, that alert comes up on top of everything for a brief while before settling down with a glowing alert symbol. In a car with unified infotainment system (as opposed to dedicated information display) that means for a brief moment you stop access to everything when you throw up the alert.

Now picture this. So many times people start the engine and keep tweaking their music, ACC and other such things while the family is finally saying their byes and the rear doors open and close a few times before its time to move on. In your kind of system every time that alert will keep popping up and block your access to everything on that console which will irritate you even more.

My experience is that once every one is inside and I see that small door open icon glowing I always manage to figure out the one door which is open, generally. The big side mirrors show me even the slightest out-of-alignment of the rear doors instantly. I also can make out from the thud if a person closed the door but it wont have closed well. You can say these are all circumstantial and such... but it works for me. In fact works for me well enough to have never caused me to think of this even as a nice-to-have feature in these last 1.5 years of ownership.

That ding is to attract your attention. Also, do remember, ding or no ding, that alert comes up on top of everything for a brief while before settling down with a glowing alert symbol. In a car with unified infotainment system (as opposed to dedicated information display) that means for a brief moment you stop access to everything when you throw up the alert.

Now picture this. So many times people start the engine and keep tweaking their music, ACC and other such things while the family is finally saying their byes and the rear doors open and close a few times before its time to move on. In your kind of system every time that alert will keep popping up and block your access to everything on that console which will irritate you even more.

My experience is that once every one is inside and I see that small door open icon glowing I always manage to figure out the one door which is open, generally. The big side mirrors show me even the slightest out-of-alignment of the rear doors instantly. I also can make out from the thud if a person closed the door but it wont have closed well. You can say these are all circumstantial and such... but it works for me. In fact works for me well enough to have never caused me to think of this even as a nice-to-have feature in these last 1.5 years of ownership.

How difficult is it to make the system dismiss the visual warning once you start doing something else?? If I start tweaking the volume, the door open warning can be dismissed, and the volume level shown?? If I retune the radio, the radio screen can come on, over riding the door open warning.

Or have a simple dismiss button, on the touchscreen system in this case?

I imagine a couple hundred lines of code should take car of all this. After all its not exactly rocket science.

Also why do you need a "ding", each time a door is opened, unless the car is moving?? If the car is stationary, there is quite a good chance that a door will be opened and the driver can surely see that without the car giving out a ding.

Even I dont feel the need for the numerous warnings and messages that today's vehicles throw out. But I think if you do something, you should do it properly.

To all owners, could you please check and let me know your findings on this if possible.

At night, park you car in front of a wall and then switch on headlights. Now using 2 fingers, pull up both front power window buttons at once (even if windows are closed) and keep an eye on the spread of the headlight on wall. Do you see a slight fluctuation on the headlights the moment you pull that button up? Do this few times at a go to see this happening (if it does in your car).

To all owners, could you please check and let me know your findings on this if possible.

At night, park you car in front of a wall and then switch on headlights. Now using 2 fingers, pull up both front power window buttons at once (even if windows are closed) and keep an eye on the spread of the headlight on wall. Do you see a slight fluctuation on the headlights the moment you pull that button up? Do this few times at a go to see this happening (if it does in your car).

I have noticed this phenomenon in all cars I have driven/owned. AFAIK a slight voltage fluctuation (more current drawn) occurs during the operation of the power windows. This is also the reason why it is mentioned in all manuals of cars that, we should not raise more than 1 power windows at once, as the fuse may get blown. Also, you can notice this happening when the A/C cuts on/off. The lights in the cabin and headlights flicker a bit. I think this is normal.

I have noticed this phenomenon in all cars I have driven/owned. AFAIK a slight voltage fluctuation (more current drawn) occurs during the operation of the power windows. This is also the reason why it is mentioned in all manuals of cars that, we should not raise more than 1 power windows at once, as the fuse may get blown. Also, you can notice this happening when the A/C cuts on/off. The lights in the cabin and headlights flicker a bit. I think this is normal.

Strangely never faced this issue in my Fiesta all this while. Well if its normal then i am

I have noticed this phenomenon in all cars I have driven/owned. AFAIK a slight voltage fluctuation (more current drawn) occurs during the operation of the power windows. This is also the reason why it is mentioned in all manuals of cars that, we should not raise more than 1 power windows at once, as the fuse may get blown. Also, you can notice this happening when the A/C cuts on/off. The lights in the cabin and headlights flicker a bit. I think this is normal.

Haven't checked out the flickering light issue in my Xuv. However I would not expect such light flickering or fuse blowing when operating more than 1 power window in a 15 lac vehicle. Never faced similar issue with my Honda city or accent. And I always used to raise more than 1 power window simultaneously in both this cars and the fuses never conked off till date. Also haven't noticed the issue of flickering lights when AC cuts on or off in these cars. I had seen this issues mainly in earlier maruti 800, zen, esteem models etc.